Home at last - except that Mario was not allowed to take part. The call was made three years later and Andretti was entered by Lotus for the 1968 Italian GP at Monza. 'When you're ready, call me,' was Chapman's reply. Andretti sought out Chap-man and told him of his ambitions.

In between wrapping up his second F1 title that year, Jim Clark won the Indy 500 for Lotus. That 1965 visit to the Brickyard was crucial and formative, bringing him to the attention of Lotus founder Colin Chapman.

However, Andretti's heart remained in Europe. Successful in sports cars too, he even had a go at drag racing. Andretti also demonstrated his versatility by winning NASCAR's Daytona 500 two years earlier, all the while continuing to pound the dirt tracks in sprint cars. He also won that year's Ind圜ar Championship, the first of three such titles he would claim in the next five seasons, with success in the 500 coming in 1969. Having switched to single-seater midgets and then sprint cars, by 1965 Andretti was Rookie of the Year at the Indianapolis 500. However, Mario grabbed the baton with both hands and his career flourished. Yet Mario, together with twin brother Aldo, adapted immediately when they decided to take the plunge.Īlthough both were instant race winners, Aldo's career never recovered from a serious early accident. It was a rough-and-tumble world that seemed about as far as removed from grand prix motor racing as rock 'n' roll was from opera. Ladies and gentleman, we give you 1978 World Champion Mario Andretti.īesides a love of motor racing, just what was it that fuelled Andretti's desire to try anything and everything? The answer lies in his childhood, one spent worshipping Alberto Ascari and even seeing the great Italian double World Champion race at Monza, before his family uprooted and emigrated to the United States in 1955.Īndretti had a love of Formula 1 and was suddenly landed in an alien world: one of stock car rac-ing on dirt tracks at State fairgrounds. Yet there is one man who deliberately set out to really do it all, who danced on the limit longer than anyone and won in a mind-boggling array of disciplines. As for Stirling Moss.well, he's Stirling Moss isn't he? But which driver was the best all-rounder? Graham Hill was the only one to do it in Monaco, Indianapolis and at Le Mans Jim Clark made it look as easy in a Lotus Cortina as he did a Lotus F1 car while John Surtees did it on two wheels as well as four. The majority of our legends raced in an era when the world's best contested many categories other than Formula 1.

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